2013 37th Annual Language Arts Conference Thursday, February 21st and Friday, February 22nd Sheraton Centre Hotel 123 Queen St. West Toronto, Ontario MARC BROWN THURSDAY BREAKFAST SPEAKER STEVEN PAGE THURSDAY LUNCHEON SPEAKER Registration Information/Form TOLOLWA MOLLEL ADRIENNE CLARKSON FRIDAY BREAKFAST SPEAKER FRIDAY LUNCHEON SPEAKER Celebrate Reading at our 37th Anniversary … Inspirational Keynote Speakers … MARC BROWN Thursday Breakfast Speaker After Arthur “When my first son, Tolon, was born, I started telling him stories. One night our story was about an aardvark who disliked his nose. The aardvark was named Arthur, and that story became Arthur’s Nose.” Now, more than twenty-five years later, Arthur is the star of a series of bestselling books. There are now more than 66 million Arthur books in print in the United States alone. What began as a simple family ritual soon grew into a full-time profession for bestselling children’s author and illustrator Marc Brown. Trained at the Cleveland Art Institute, he went on to create more than one hundred and twenty-five picture books for children. Marc worked at many jobs, including stints as a truck driver, soda jerk, actor, chicken farmer, television art director, short order cook, and college professor. Marc Brown is the executive producer of Arthur, winner of six Emmy Awards and the most-watched children’s show on PBS as well as the new series, Postcards from Buster. Arthur is watched by children and families in over 100 countries around the world. He lives on the island of Martha’s Vineyard and in New York City, with his wife, artist and psychologist Laurie Krasny Brown. Marc and Laurie are the creators of the critically acclaimed nonfiction Dino Life Guides for Families series, which includes: When Dinosaurs Die, Dinosaurs Divorce, as well as their helpful and informative book How to Be a Friend: A Guide to Making Friends and Keeping Them and What’s the Big Secret? Talking About Sex with Girls and Boys. ADRIENNE CLARKSON Friday Luncheon Speaker Living Without Reading is Like Living Without Love Universally acknowledged to have transformed the office of Governor-General, Adrienne Clarkson was the 26th person to hold this office. The energy, enthusiasm and knowledge of Canada she brought to Canadians in her six years in Ottawa have left an indelible mark in our nation’s history. Through a long career at CBC, she created and starred in numerous series including the Fifth Estate and Adrienne Clarkson Presents. She has been showered with honourary doctorates from St. Petersburg in Russia, Siena in Italy and twenty-six universities in Canada. Since leaving the office of Governor General, Adrienne Clarkson has founded the Institute for Canadian citizenship (ICC) and chairs it with her husband,John Ralston Saul. Her passion for Canada is evident in everything she has done. Her memoirs, Heart Matters, were published by Penguin Viking Canada in 2006 and a biography of Dr. Norman Bethune was published for Penguin Group Canada’s Extraordinary Canadians series in 2009. Her latest book, Room for All of Us: Surprising Stories of Loss and Transformation was published in 2011. TOLOLWA MOLLEL Friday Breakfast Speaker Crafting My North American Story Tololwa Mollel is a children’s author, dramatist and storyteller, who has written over sixteen books and several plays. Mollel’s books, which include award winning titles such as The Orphan Boy, Rhinos for Lunch and Elephants for Supper, Big Boy, and My Rows and Piles of Coins, have been published in Canada, U.S., Australia, England and Tanzania where he was born. Some of the books have been translated into various South African languages and into Korean. Mollel has also created and adapted stories for performance. Among them is “The Twins and the Monster” which was first performed to music in 2000 by the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO). It has been performed in various remounts since then by ESO and other symphony orchestras in cities across Canada and in the US. Presently Mollel is working, among other long term projects, toward an anthology of life stories from across cultures, including his own. He is also working on a memoir on his life growing up with his grandfather in Tanzania. Mollel has presented, performed and conducted writing, storytelling and dramatic workshops and writer-in-residence programs in schools, libraries, communities and at conferences, across Canada and the U.S. Of his presentations and work with schools and libraries and communities in general, Mollel says, “I aim to provide a feast of words — written and spoken — for the eye, the ear and the mind; as well as for the creative imagination, and for performance.” Through writing, storytelling and drama, Mollel hopes to empower the young, and others, with the gift of story — to write, tell, share, and perform stories. STEVEN PAGE Thursday Luncheon Speaker Care and Feeding of the Creative Mind Singer, songwriter, and musical icon Steven Page has made an indelible impression on the American music scene as well as its cultural landscape. A witty, endearing, and introspective stage presence, Page enjoyed two decades of success as the lead singer and co-founder of The Barenaked Ladies, the popular band from Scarborough, ON, who dominated MuchMusic and MTV, sold millions of albums, received two Billboard Awards, Grammy nominations and were awarded six Juno awards along the way. Steven Page’s evolving artistic path now has him blazing a solo trail, where he continues to take chances and catch the public’s attention with a variety of new projects, including some of his best material yet. The fruits of this journey have borne three Stratford Shakespeare Festival scores, and two solo albums: A Singer Must Die (with The Art of Time Ensemble) and Page One his true solo debut. Described as “Absolutely Brilliant”, Page One is not only his most recent work, it is the most distilled expression of Steven Page. Steven Page made headlines 2011 when had the honour of singing at the state funeral of his friend, politician Jack Layton’s funeral in August. His interpretation of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” captured the somber mood of a country in mourning. In 2012, Steven Page has scored the music for Stratford Festival’s critically acclaimed production of Cymbeline running this summer. He was nominated for a Genie Award for his song “A Different Sort of Solitude” featured in last year’s film French Immersion. A 2-song EP with that track as well as “Manchild” a co-write with Steven Page’s good friend and frequent collaborator, Craig Northey (The Odds), was released in January. In March, Page and Northey embarked on an acoustic theatre tour across Western Canada, and for the rest of the year, you will find Steven Page touring across Canada and the US performing solo and duo dates as well as entertaining crowds with his full six piece band of multi-instrumentalists. You can expect that any Steven Page show will feature his powerful and distinctive tenor voice, the trademark sense of humor, his new songs and selections from the Barenaked Ladies songbook that we all know and love. ADDITIONAL SPEAKER HIGHLIGHTS INCLUDE: Lucy Calkins, Barbara Coloroso, Terry Fallis, Douglas B. Fisher, Georgia Heard, William Himmele, Karen Hume, Kathie Nunley, Laura Robb, Dr. David Sousa, and Tim Wynne-Jones. NEW IN 2013! Thursday, February 21st Evening A Taste for Reading featuring Mary Bigler and this year’s Award Winners • Savour food offerings for every palate at the assortment of food stations • Enjoy live music • Celebrate literacy with this year’s Award Winners • Laugh with Mary Bigler • Mix and mingle with speakers and delegates from around the country All for only $25.00 inclusive per person! Sign up on our conference registration form. Attire is smart casual. MODERATED FILM SCREENINGS Teaching resources provided. TURNING POINTS A Trilogy of Films from TIFF facilitated by Daniella Marchese — TIFF Bell Lightbox Manager, School and Educator THE BOYS OF TEREZÍN Programmes. ZEBU AND THE PHOTOFISH Moderated by George Brady — a holocaust survivor, and Neil Andersen — Media Literacy expert. HEART OF RHYME IN A HEARTBEAT Presenters Speakers Notation Presentation Titles Thursday Friday Janet Allen Writing Informational Text: Moving Beyond the • • Five-Paragraph Essay Just Let Me Read! Engaging Even the Most Reluctant Readers • • Neil Andersen More Media Literacy Teaching Strategies • • Jill Aoki Barrett Social Justice Begins with Me — K-8 Resource Kit • Les Asselstine & France-Lyne Bérubé The Magic and Science of Linking Literacies • • Marilyn Banack French How to Choose the Best French Books • Hannah Beach Communicating and Learning Through Movement • I Can Dance a Better World — Exploring Social Justice Issues • Through Movement Celia Bettencourt, Jodie Church, A Look at Full-Day Kindergarten • Vanessa Grieve & Nanette Owusu-Ansah; Facilitated by Leah Kearney Mary Bigler Writing: What Every Teacher Should Know • • David Booth Shredding Comprehension Questions • George Brady & Neil Andersen Film The Boys of Terezín • Marc Brown After Arthur Breakfast Lucy Calkins Teaching the Writers Craft to Young Writers: Grades K-3 • Rise to the Challenge of Teaching Young People to Write: Grades 4-8 • Kathy Cassidy Primary Digital Portfolios • Connected from the Start • Lauren Chapple Social Justice Begins with Me — K-8 Resource Kit • Adrienne Clarkson Living Without Reading is Like Living Without Love Luncheon Elizabeth Coelho Scaffolding Literacy Development in Multilingual Classrooms • Making Asset of Linguistic and Cultural